Field
Embodiments of the invention relate to portal environments. Specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to generating a webpage from previous browsing periods of a user.
Description of the Related Art
Distributing content in large computer networks often poses challenges. For example, the quantity of content available for distribution in a computer network often varies proportionally to the size of the computer network. For instance, the Internet hosts a vast quantity of content, not all of which is easily accessible by a typical end-user. Portals represent a sensible solution to the problem of aggregating content using a channel paradigm and at a single, network-addressable location. Consequently, portals have become increasingly used in content distribution.
Each page of a portal (or portal page) may include portlets. Each portlet is a fragment of markup code, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) or Extensible Markup Language (XML), that may be generated by a corresponding portlet application. Each portlet application is a pluggable user interface software component that produces the fragment of markup code for the respective portlet of the portal page. The fragment may include content such as text, images, video, documents, spreadsheets, Weblogs, RSS or syndicated content feeds, or other reference objects like a uniform resource locator (URL). A prototypical portlet application may be implemented as server-side scripts executed by a portal server. Examples of portlet applications include email, weather reports, discussion forums, and news. Further, portlet standards, such as the Java™ Portlet Specification, allow software developers to create portlets that can be plugged in to any portal that supports the portlet standards.
From the perspective of an end-user, a portlet is a content channel to which the end-user can subscribe. From the perspective of a content provider, a portlet is a way to distribute content in a personalized manner to a subscribing end-user. By providing one or more individually selectable and configurable portlets in a portal, portal providers can distribute content and applications through a unified interface, in a personalized manner, and according to the preferences of the end-user.